During the journey from Cambodia to Vietnam, my shampoo/conditioner/body wash were all confiscated at the airport(s); I somehow lost my small wallet somewhere, and I ALMOST lost my passport.
Thankfully, the losses are not a huge deal. I can easily replace the BECU debit and credit cards that were in the wallet (I never used them anyhow; they were just backups in case I lost my other ones), and I only had about $12 USD cash in there. I had two wallets for this exact reason; each one has a debit card and a credit card so that if I lose one, I won't be totally screwed for money. And fortunately, the small one was NOT the one containing my passport. But now, I just have the one wallet, which has everything essential, so I really need to not lose it in the next 3 months. As for my passport -- I had some things out on the airport-to-plane-shuttle-bus as I was filling out a Vietnam visa application, and my passport was apparently one of them. As I got off the bus, a woman behind me tapped me on the shoulder and handed me my passport. I am 1) so thankful for her random act of kindness, and 2) shocked/embarrassed at how close I came to losing it. I wouldn't have noticed I didn't have it until I needed it again to check in to the hostel in Hanoi, at which point it would be long, long gone. Having an official passport confirming my U.S. citizenship seems extra extra important these days in terms of re-entering the country, so my diligence is going to get taken up a notch from now on.
Vietnam: Goals & First Impressions
My main reason for coming to Vietnam was to learn about the Vietnam War (which is referred to as the French-American war here, of course), and to get a sense for what Vietnam is like as a nation within its larger historical and cultural context. As is true for a lot of Americans (I think), I hear "Vietnam" and think "Vietnam War," especially after working with so many Vietnam Veterans. That's all I really knew of the place, and I don't even know that much about the war. So I wanted to learn more about that conflict, and then also broaden my understanding of Vietnam on its own terms so that I can understand and appreciate it in ways that extend far beyond that period of our shared history.
So far, I am really enjoying this country. It feels more foreign somehow than Thailand and Cambodia did -- there are just more quirky cultural things going on, like people wearing those flat-cone-shaped straw hats, transporting goods by hanging them balanced from both ends of a stick supported on their shoulders, burning trash on the sidewalk, driving scooters right up to stores and shopping without ever getting off them, and street-side restaurants furnished with low "child-sized" stools and tables.
I see people preparing and selling all kinds of food from the sidewalks and in the main market, which include caged chickens, fresh fish swimming in barrels, live de-shelled turtles, and frogs. Also, the street traffic seems to be more heavy and yet less chaotic. I can walk through a busy intersection and the scooters just flow around me with seemingly minimal effort. You do, of course, have to stay very aware of your surroundings, and the hyper vigilance + crowds get a bit exhausting after walking around for a couple hours.
Drive-up scooter shopping
Typical Hanoi "Old Quarter" street traffic
The no-longer-active north-bound end of a train track
(south-bound, this track is still used for transport from Hanoi to Da Nang)
An example of the sidewalk trash burning (check out the small seats at the restaurant on the right!)
I love the food here because it is delicious and cheap -- lots of noodle soups and baguette sandwiches, and I tried a "rice gruel with seafood" the other day for $1.50 -- but it is not the healthiest. Lots of noodles, bread, and rice. Finding vegetable-based dishes has become kind of an issue, actually.
As it turns out, I also arrived here right as the Tet* (New Year) season began, on January 20! Tet preparations and festivities start about a week before actual Tet, which is a 3-day event from Jan 29-31. I should be in Ho Chi Minh City for that, and I am really really hoping to see a lantern festival; I just caught the tail end of the one in Hanoi, and evidently, they don't actually do the lantern thing EVERY day of the festival, so I missed the actual lantern part.
*If the word "Tet" sounds familiar to some of you and you aren't sure why, it may be because you learned about "the Tet Offensive" in history class, which was a series of attacks by the North Vietnamese/ Viet Cong agains the South Vietnamese, which marked a turning point in the Vietnam War. Here's a quick summary from the History Channel website.
During a walking tour organized through the hostel, we were challenged to find something weird in the market; whoever came back with the most exotic thing would win a free beer. When I found the live frogs for sale, I knew those would be hard to beat. So I ordered one, but apparently they are sold by the kilo, so when I said "one," it meant one kilo, and one kilo of frogs is five frogs. So I came back with five live frogs, at which point I learned that we were just supposed to take PHOTOS of the exotic things we saw. Oops. But no matter -- I won the contest and a reputation as "the frog lady" from fellow hostel-mates, and the frogs were released by the lake, so it was a win-win-win-win-win-win (each of the frogs gets their own win for surviving the market and living to see another day).
De-shelled turtles
Toads on toads on toads
My five market escapees
Another highlight of the walking tour was getting some OG "egg coffee" at the place that invented it. Egg coffee is prepared by whipping up egg with sugar to create a smooth cream, which is then poured over espresso (although they prepare their "espresso" a bit differently). It's delicious, but definitely more of a dessert/after meal treat than a start-your-morning kind of coffee.
Here's a video tutorial for making egg coffee, for anyone interested in trying one yourself.
Ho Chi Minh
So, here's the thing about the Ho Chi Minh Museum. It was a lot of random stuff without much of a narrative, so I can't really give you a good summary of him as a person or how he rose to power and became leader of the North Vietnamese communist party, BUT.... I can share with you a few interesting tidbits about things he has said and some artwork that has been inspired by him.
Entrance to the Russian-sponsored Ho Chi Minh museum
"Breaking shackles" sculpture
Clever. And brutal.
Have to admit, he does seem to have an inspiring way with words.
Hard to argue with this -- I think most self-reliance-minded Americans would agree with this sentiment. Ho (...we're on a first name basis, yes...) was an admirer of the Declaration of Independence, so a lot of his political views were rather American, oddly enough.
Again, hard to argue with this. Although, I figure that the only real difference between the exploiters and exploited is power and opportunity -- we are all capable of, and vulnerable to, either role. But still -- the exploited are always going to feel more camaraderie and fraternity with one another than the exploiting (who tend to be more focused on competing rather than cooperating)
That's really all I can comment on as far as this museum went... it certainly didn't provide comprehensive coverage of the war, nor the lifespan of Ho Chi Minh himself, but I expect to learn more about Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnam War in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) as I visit the Cu Chi Tunnels, the War Remnants Museum, and the Reunification/Independence palace.
Huong Mai Weasel Coffee
During the Bangkok-to-Phuket flight with my mom and sister, one of them pointed out to me an article in the in-flight magazine about this coffee roasting company in Hanoi that roasts beans which have been digested by weasels, because evidently, weasels are very good at sniffing out the very best coffee berries and their digestive juices do something magical to the beans. Naturally, I wrote the name of that place and added Hanoi to the Vietnam itinerary (I also wanted to go to Hanoi to catch a giant lantern festival, but mostly I wanted to try this very exotic coffee). Here's a snippet from the cafe's brochure:
"Cafe Chon is the ultimate connoisseur coffee -- available in very limited amounts. They are fresh roasted for each order every time. The finest coffee beans are selected. They have been organically naturally processed by the digestive juices of the Vietnamese Civet Cats, also known as Con Chon, or weasels. These are a remarkable species adapted to seeking out and selecting only the most perfect Arabica coffee beans. These then go through an enzyme active digestive process and are expelled, dried, cleaned, and washed. Then they are pre-roasted, and shipped to our roasting facility where they are finish-roasted to make the perfect coffee bean. There simply is no finer coffee in the world."
You want to try it now, don't you? You can order their coffee online (www.huongmaicafe.com), but it costs about $30 for shipping, which seems like a lot to pay for coffee; or maybe it's worth it just so you can confuse people by talking about a "shitty" coffee you had once that was absolutely delicious.
Also, I feel like it's important to realize that someone had to try brewing coffee with weasel poop beans before it could be known that this would produce delicious coffee. It's nicer to think that someone studying the digestive juices of weasels reasoned that coffee beans would be transformed for the better after passing through a weasel's body, but I honestly think it's more likely that someone tried it first (perhaps on a dare?), discovered it was delicious, and then figured out the science of why later. Not unlike whoever decided eating coagulated milk (cheese) was a good idea and convinced everyone else to do it. I guess what I'm trying to say is thank you to the brave, weird, sickos who discovered these things and shared their findings with the rest of the world, despite the initial ridicule and resistance I am sure they faced.
One of five Huong Mai Cafe locations in Hanoi
Really amused by the label/logo of the weasel pooping coffee beans
Inside view of the cafe, which is not exactly a sit-down coffee shop -- more just a shop
to buy the beans -- but they will give you a sample brew if you ask for one.
The coffee beans used for my sample at the cafe (they have many roasts, as you can see in the photo above)
Teeny tiny coffee brewing
(not sure what this method is called, but it seems to be some combination of pour-over and French press)
By the way, the coffee was indeed incredible. It starts off a little bitter, but then gets nutty and caramely and finishes very, very smooth. I usually take cream with my coffee, because it can be too bitter for me otherwise, but this was perfect just as it was. If you're willing to pay the $30 shipping fee, I highly recommend buying some of these beans. http://www.huongmaicafe.com
Lang Toi ("My Village")
Whilst wandering around the city, I passed by this beautiful opera house and checked out what shows they had. Turns out there was a national-history-ish cirque show playing at this lovely 105-year-old Hanoi building called Lang Toi ("My Village", in Vietnamese) so I got tickets to the next available performance on Jan 23. If you want to get a taste for what the show was like, check out the trailer here: http://www.luneproduction.com/lang-toi/
Pano shot of the beautiful opera house building:
The show kinda solidified my idea of the Vietnamese as being the badasses of Southeast Asia -- very organized and disciplined -- and it was incredibly moving and beautiful. They did the whole thing with only a handful of bamboo trunks and very few other props, so it was extra impressive to witness such creativity, artistry, human flexibility and skill, with such a limited prop collection.